Anatomy of an artwork

Alina Szapocznikow’s Self-Portrait: an ancient marble hero

The Polish artist who survived Auschwitz creates work reflecting a bygone era

Head spin …

This plaster head might have tumbled off an ancient marble hero. In fact, it’s a 1971 self-portrait by the Polish artist Alina Szapocznikow, who often cast her own features and body in her work.

All lit up …

She made her name in Paris with art that caught the pop vibe of the swinging 60s: cast resin lamps of breasts and red-lipped mouths, including one based on Julie Christie’s.

Body shock …

Yet there was a much darker, visceral side to the work of this artist, who survived Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen’s concentration camps as a teenager. She cast her own head and filled it with fag butts for an ashtray sculpture and used translucent polyurethane resin to suggest flayed skin.

Small faces …

Szapocznikow began making lumps bearing her face after a diagnosis of breast cancer in 1969. She christened them Tumours Personified in a related 1971 work, where they are displayed scattered across the floor like the disassembled statues of a bygone world.

To Exalt the Ephemeral: Alina Szapocznikow 1962–1972, Hauser & Wirth, W1, to 2 May